El Conclusion: Spurs use 37-year-old magic to beat Wizards

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San Antonio Spurs 125 FinalRecap | Box Score 118 Washington Wizards
Tim Duncan, PF 40 MIN | 13-20 FG | 5-7 FT | 11 REB | 5 AST | 2 STL | 3 BLK | 3 TO | 31 PTS | +13I don’t know what I’m going to do when this guy retires.

Tiago Splitter, C 34 MIN | 3-7 FG | 1-1 FT | 12 REB | 3 AST | 0 STL | 1 BLK | 1 TO | 7 PTS | +10He’s just a terror on defense and today he was probably the best offensive Brazilian on the court too.

Tony Parker, PG 19 MIN | 2-5 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 5 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 4 TO | 4 PTS | -13Didn’t play much due to a lower back injury. Before he left he struggled with the Wizards blitzing defense. Either way, you won’t see him against Brooklyn and we’ll see about Charlotte on Saturday.

Cory Joseph, PG 28 MIN | 4-7 FG | 0-0 FT | 3 REB | 4 AST | 3 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 8 PTS | +4Did a great job running things after Tony went down. His defense, as usual, was on point. Most important, he seems to be getting more and more comfortable playing with and against the starters. That’s not something he looked comfortable doing a month ago. Key thing moving forward.

Danny Green, SG 46 MIN | 7-16 FG | 3-4 FT | 7 REB | 2 AST | 1 STL | 2 BLK | 4 TO | 22 PTS | +13Welcome back, Danny Green. Found his shot in the second half and his defense late was really great.

Matt Bonner, PF 14 MIN | 0-4 FG | 1-2 FT | 2 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 2 BLK | 0 TO | 1 PTS | -4Gets the plus for two blocked shots… 2 BLOCKS?!

Boris Diaw, PF 21 MIN | 2-5 FG | 0-0 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 4 PTS | +1We talked about this a little bit on 48MoH TV, but Diaw tends to struggle against larger front lines and Nene and Marcin Gortat certainly qualify. Hopefully we see more of him tomorrow considering we probably won’t see much or any of Tim Duncan in Brooklyn.

Jeff Ayres, C 6 MIN | 0-0 FG | 1-2 FT | 1 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 1 PTS | -7Not a ton of Ayres Up There tonight.

Patty Mills, PG 20 MIN | 7-14 FG | 5-5 FT | 6 REB | 4 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 23 PTS | +11So Joseph took on the “running the offense” part of Tony’s game in the second half, Mills took on the “get a big shot when the Spurs need it” part of Tony’s game. He was sensational in the fourth quarter and first overtime.

Nando de Colo, PG 17 MIN | 3-7 FG | 2-2 FT | 4 REB | 3 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK | 1 TO | 8 PTS | +9Really nice third quarter from Nando. His playmaking helped the Spurs get back in the game in the second half. Hopefully that continues against Brooklyn, because we’ll see a lot of him.

Shannon Brown, PG 6 MIN | 1-2 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 2 PTS | -7Congrats to Shannon Brown on getting his first field goal as a Spur.

Marco Belinelli, SG 38 MIN | 6-11 FG | 2-2 FT | 4 REB | 1 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 14 PTS | +5Starting to find the shooting stroke after a mini-slump in January. Having Danny Green back really helps Belinelli who doesn’t have to guard the other team’s best perimeter player.

Gregg PopovichDefinitely played Duncan more minutes than he would’ve liked, but otherwise another great job. To win against a very good Wizards team with No Duncan, Parker, Ginobili or Leonard on the floor is the stuff wizards are made of (PUN INTENDED).

One Thing We Saw

  1. Again, no Parker against the Nets Thursday night. Pop didn’t rule out Duncan yet, but we should at least expect limited minutes. This is what the NBA gets for scheduling the first TNT game of the year for the Spurs on the second night of a road back-to-back.
  • rj

    Game of the year….thus far

  • yeahisaidspurs

    Didn’t Shannon Brown score in the game he started? Pretty sure he did. Or is this a belated congrats?

  • Joseph Dooley

    Darn. My DVR stopped in the middle of the first OT.

  • Jesse Gladsaget

    He scored on a FT against either the Hornets or the Kings. I don’t remember which.

  • Matthew R Tynan

    I corrected the post: it was his first field goal.

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  • Caui sounds better than kawhi

    Definitely best game of the year thus far. One could argue that the spurs collective confidence and psyche took a hit last year, and that it’s been visible.. especially in those games against the top tier teams. Last night the spurs were gritty and they fought back. They needed this more than anything, because all the polishing of the system will come over time… self believe wasn’t a guarantee. Go Spurs!!!